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Stop thinking

Well, do ya?


  • Total voters
    70

Kasper

Diabolical
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If I have too many thoughts I just push them out of my head with ease.
Well, that's one thing that I envy extroverts. It seems like they can just "switch it off", which is something that I'm truly incapable of doing.

Found that interesting, I’ve never really had a problem with switching off my thoughts, I can over think things till I feel as though I’m bashing my head against a brick wall but still, shutting off my thoughts isn’t so hard to do.

Is this true for you? If so, how do you do it and do you find it an easy or difficult process? Also do you see being able to ‘just switch off’ an I v E thing?
 

wolfy

awsm
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If a train of thought catches me I find it next to impossible to jump off.
 

Athenian200

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It's not easy for me to stop thinking. If I try to do it, I won't be able to. If I become aware that I've stopped thinking, I'll start back up. The only way I can manage to stop thinking is if something distracts me naturally, and I'm not focused on the fact that I'm being distracted. It's more likely to happen when I'm really tired.
 

Lady_X

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i can't shut it off but i don't overthink things all day everyday that would be exhausting and completely unhealthy i think...but when i am in overthink mode i can't really make it stop.
 

CrystalViolet

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I'd think about stop thinking, then all the ways I could stop thinking, and when I thought I'd stop thinking, I'd be thinking about how it's weird not to have thoughts and then realise I'd been thinking all the time....so no, switching off my thoughts is next to impossible, while I'm conscious. I dream lots too...well at least I remember myself dreaming.
 

nanook

a scream in a vortex
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one idea is to rather finish a thought for once.

also, look at motivations. cuz thoughts are not always verbal and nonverbal thoughts can be hard to witness, to grasp, but the motivation or general movement of the mind is apparent. it indicates/proves thoughts, that cannot be grasped.

so, instead of finishing a concrete thought, another attempt would be to focus the motivation. so you own it. then you consciously quit some of them (but there will be more). the nutty mind is a mind that wants 100 things at the same time. it does not really notice that, though. it gets quieter, if it gets in touch the motivations and tries to stay with a single motivation for a bit.

"stopping" the mind is not really a realistic "goal". a goal is to "own" the mind. (complicated topic, i better don't go deeper. has been done before ....)
 

nanook

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yes, like fireyphoenix writes ...

if i try to "stop" thinking i only achieve that i dont notice my thoughts anymore, because i identify with the thought "dont think" so i cant witness that with witch i identify, and i sort of define all nonverbal stuff as not-thought, like looking at my computer ... that is only further disintegration ... whatever. nonsense ... no one can do that.

the mind can become still but thats like a different topic
 

BlackCat

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I don't really do this.
 

Halla74

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My brain never stops on its own. I am always scheming and planning and writing music in my head and coming up with blueprints for my next project in the yard and thinking about how to make the world's greatest omelet. :D I love it though!
 

Kasper

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I guess I'm talking about the 'loud' thoughts, I don't suspect one can be truly blank but I'd say we can quiet our minds so the thoughts are quieter than what's around us. Se delights like nature for instance can do this for me, I can sit and watch a sunset without noticing conscience thoughts.
 

pippi

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I chose "No, the voices never leave me", but I can occasionally get them to hum quietly in the background when I do yoga or concentrate hard on just breathing (ie. meditate). Otherwise there is always a voice (or more than one) rattling around in there mulling over something. The volume varies, so maybe other people don't notice the quiet voices, but I try and hear them so I do.
 

Lady_X

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I guess I'm talking about the 'loud' thoughts, I don't suspect one can be truly blank but I'd say we can quiet our minds so the thoughts are quieter than what's around us. Se delights like nature for instance can do this for me, I can sit and watch a sunset without noticing conscience thoughts.

yes me too.
 

juggernaut

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I'd have an easier time not breathing. Even if I manage to derail one line of thought, I just end up jumping the track to another. I cannot even imagine what it would be like for things to be "quiet" internally. I don't even need an alarm clock because my thoughts wake me up before my body wants to. Seriously, I have woken myself up on several occasions midway through a derivation, or trying to figure out a way to defend some (philosophical) argument.
 

wolfy

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It depends. When something really catches me I can't let go. Otherwise it's not to hard to turn off my thoughts.
Although I must admit thoughts often jam between me and other people. That's always been a big problem.
 

nanook

a scream in a vortex
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i guess, when in nature and relaxed there is basically a single stream of motivations. so thoughts dont become "loud", because the don't fight for dominance about other thoughts?

anyway, i know two kinds of total silence or stop, both just happen at some random point.

one is just an ending of the motion of the mind, but the I and the sensory perception stays normal and its just calm. you can look at things, meaning you make descisions. soon a single motivation is born and there is a thought about it, and it starts all over again....

the other type of stop involves a forgetting of I-ness. its like "i am none of that" or "ups, all that i (usually) am, is gone right now" "so i guess i am not" <- these are my interpretations now, not thoughts at that moment. then your sensory perceptions will slap you in the face with eternal clarity. a bit like time becomes your body. this is you. meaning there is a self, just not that I-thought. so it's a self that does not depend on thought.

i know a third variant... but i dont know how it ends. its like the opening of a gate/doorway in a spaceship. the whole of reality and identities seems to get pulled out into "a vacuum" by a tremendous force. this is the impression for less than a millisecond. it seems to be death of self. but fear makes me close the doorway, before i am actually out and gone.

(all of this is random accidents to me. i am not that skilled meditator)
 

Kasper

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Yeah, I really suck at meditating in respect to clearing my mind, when I'm relaxed like that I'll actually let my thoughts wander and enjoy being able to follow one or two clear lines of thought cause I am relaxed but there are so many other times when my mind will just go blank. Like seriously people will ask me what I'm thinking and I be like :huh: "I wasn't".

Hmm, doesn't seem normal :thelook:
 

professor goodstain

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Now i'm overthinkin my last post and how it fits in the big picture. One conclusion i crossed was the title brought about a sense of awareness. But i'm sure i crossed paths with that conclusion before. 100% sure come to (think) of it.
 

wolfy

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Yeah, I really suck at meditating in respect to clearing my mind, when I'm relaxed like that I'll actually let my thoughts wander and enjoy being able to follow one or two clear lines of thought cause I am relaxed but there are so many other times when my mind will just go blank. Like seriously people will ask me what I'm thinking and I be like :huh: I wasn't.

Hmm, doesn't seem normal :thelook:

No, that is perfectly normal. Just like me.
 

CrystalViolet

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I kinda lie, the only time my thoughts stop is when I'm overstimulated. There's too much outer stuff going on for me to hear my thoughts....something's jamming the signal. That isn't a good place to be in, as there is no inner calm.
 
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